Japan

I arrived in Tokyo in the early morning. After I dropped off my luggage at the hotel (it was too early to check in), I headed to Miura City in Kanagawa prefecture, which is a famous sea port specializing in tuna. Because I was planning to have a nice lunch, this was supposed to be a breakfast. Three grades of tuna, akami (leanest), chu-toro (medium fat) and o-toro (fattiest) along with other kinds on tuna sushi. What a gorgeous breakfast...   

My lunch is a prix fixe tofu and yuba (tofu skin) course meal. Tofu course doesn't mean vegetarian or vegan. In general, "vegetable" dishes in Asia are dishes that feature a certain vegetable. It may happen to be vegetarian/vegan but in general, it contains a small amount of meat/fish for flavoring. The interior of this restaurant is pretty traditional, with a low table sitting on the floor. The presentation is also very Japanese. But some dishes are more fusion.

The meal started with three cold appetizers. Boiled greens with soy sauce, yuba and creamy tofu (left to right). The creamy tofu actually has heavy cream mixed in. It was almost like dessert although it wasn't very sweet. The sauce on top is miso.

Fresh tofu in a hot pot

Tai (red snapper) sashimi with soy sauce foam

Chawanmushi (savory egg custard)

Yuba wrapped tofu - deep fried, this is my favorite. I don't know how they seasoned it, but it was very flavorful.

Skewed flavored tofu with miso sauce on top

Tofu gratin, the béchamel part is made with tofu, I guess. The top is real cheese.

In the traditional Japanese course meals, rice and soup are served at the end (before dessert). These are called oshokuji (literally means "meal"). Then, what about the previous dishes?? I prefer to have rice with the other dishes, though...

 

Soft tofu with black sugar syrup and tofu ice cream with the same syrup and roasted soy bean powder

Each dish was pretty small but I was really stuffed by the end of the meal. It was less than $50 including tax (and no tip in Japan!!). I think it's very reasonable for a 12 course meal. I used to think meals are very expensive in Japan but I guess not...

I will spend three more days in Japan but there won't be any "food" events. So, this is the end of this trip.

I don't know where I'm going next. I definitely want to go to Peru, the Szechuan region of China, and Laos (the guy at the cooking class in Yangon recommended). But who knows? Stay tuned until my next trip!

 

Cooking Class in Bangkok

This was the best day of my entire trip! I took a cooking class at Chef Leez cooking school. It was way more educational than I expected. Luckily, I was the only student of the day, so I got all the attention! Like yesterday, it started with a market tour. The market was located in a literally hidden place. We went through a small and dark alley and there it was. I wouldn't go in there unless the instructor is with me..

As soon as we got back to the school,  we started to work on one of the many dishes that I was going to make today. I explained to the instructor that I wanted to learn authentic dishes and that I love spicy foods, so I didn't want her to tone down the heat. Did she give me what I asked for? Let's see...

Fresh Kefir lime, I had never seen it. It smelled fantastic! I don't think I can get this in where I am in the US...

We made coconut cream/milk from fresh shredded coconut. I didn't know we could make coconut milk by hand.... This was a great opportunity for me!! The whole coconut, including the brown skin, was shredded (she said the skin has more fat), then poured warm water on it and squeezed the liquid out - that's coconut cream. Then, we added more warm water and squeezed again. That's coconut milk. I thought coconut cream is reduced coconut milk. But the difference is like extra virgin olive oil and second squeezed olive oil. The instructor said the fresh coconut cream/oil tastes so different because there is nothing added, such as preservatives or stabilizers. Also, because it's not heat treated for a long time (like a canning process). I'll explain how different later in this post.

Coconut sugar is added to the fresh coconut cream for later use. I had never seen coconut sugar in this color. It's not widely available in the US, and it's usually dark brown. The sweetness is much more subtle than the cane/beet sugar that we normally use.   

We made base chili paste (chili, garlic and shallot). To taste the paste, she made a chili paste sandwich. That was really delicious!

We made two kinds of Tom Yam Kung, clear and creamy. This explains why the tom yam kung that I had last night at the restaurant was somewhat creamy. I didn't know there were two versions of tom yam, I thought that tom yam is always clear. However, I think I'll make the creamy version from now on because it was just AMAZING!!! I have to say this is one of the best dishes I've ever had!!! They were both quite spicy and very delicious. But the flavor of the creamy tom yam was beyond words. The chili paste and coconut cream I made earlier and shrimp oil (which is made with shrimp head guts) made this something extraordinary.

Tom Kha Gai

Another amazing dish is this Pad Thai. This is definitely the best Pad Thai I've ever had. Many Asian dishes use MSG to boost up the umami. But I know how difficult it is to achieve the same level of umami without using MSG. But the instructor did it with an incredible amount of flavorful ingredients, such as aromatics, shrimp oil, etc. It's supposed to be a noodle dish. But her version had a very small amount of noodles. And this is not the westernized "ketchuppy" Pad Thai!

[Added in Apr 2020 - Pad Thai cooking video with my own personal twists]

Pad Kra-Pao Gai (Chicken with basil)

Ma-sa-man Curry topped with coconut cream

Green curry with chicken topped with coconut cream; she didn't disappoint me on the spiciness. I was sweating like crazy...

I just told the instructor that I had an amazing pomelo salad last night. Upon hearing this, she just decided to make pomelo salad, which was not included in the class, just for me. So nice of her! There was no pork but it was as good as the one I had last night. I have to make this again once I get back to the US!

Som Tom (Green papaya salad), it was pretty spicy again

This is the typical Thai dessert, mango and coconut sticky rice. But I've never been crazy about it, until now... I thought the coconut sauce was weirdly salty and I always wanted to eat the mango and rice separately. But when the coconut sauce is made with the fresh coconut cream, the difference is night and day. The instructor tossed the sticky rice with the coconut sauce, which has the right amount of salt. Now, it totally makes sense to eat the rice and mango together.

In total, I made 9 dishes in one class. I think the actual cooking time was 2.5 hours or so.. I can't believe it. I've never learned this much in such a short amount of time. I would say this is the best cooking class I've ever attended!

I'm leaving Bangkok tonight heading to Tokyo on the red-eye flight.  

Cooking class in Yangon

The hotel I stayed at had a nice breakfast buffet. To accommodate the tourists and business travelers from all over the world, there were all kinds of dishes, from scrambled egg and bacon to porridge and miso soup. Of course, I ignored these dishes and went straight to the Myanmar food section. There were two kinds of breakfast noodles, Mohinga and Ohn-no khaut swei, which is coconut based chicken noodle soup. It's very similar to Thai Khao soi and Malaysian Laksa. Very yummy! I topped it with fried garlic and shallots.  I had their mohinga also.,, By the way, there is no so-called onion in Myanmar. Locals call shallots "onions" instead because that's the closest thing they have.

   

 

After a big breakfast at the hotel, I went to one of the main events of this trip, cooking class!! The class started with a market tour. The market looked very local and lively. Again, the people were pretty shy but didn't seem to mind me taking pictures (I confirmed this first with the guide/cooking instructor).

 

Smaller banana, about 2/3 the size of what we have in the US.

 

Yellowish fish, does not particularly look appetizing...

I didn't see any "sea"food at the market. The instructor said Myanmar people usually eat fresh water fish/shell fish because all the "sea"foods caught at the sea port (Myanmar has pretty long coastline) are for export and taxed. If locals want "sea"foods, they have to pay the after-tax price. That's sad...

After the market tour, we stopped by at a nearby café. The instructor ordered mohinga. I was pretty stuffed from the huge breakfast at the hotel but didn't say anything because I didn't want to miss the opportunity to have another mohinga. It was pretty good but I like the super cheap mohinga that I had in Bagan the best so far.

 

Now, it's time for cooking. The class was held at an apartment that is both their office and kitchen. Including myself, there were three students. We had 5 dishes to make.

Base curry paste, they used non-spicy chili. I guess they went easy for us. I wish they didn't...

Salt and turmeric rubbed onto tofu. Turmeric is one of the key ingredients in Myanmar foods

Cleaned at the market. Interesting way to cut fish.... Very soft flesh.

First dish (condiments?) was tomato sauce with the curry paste. It was quite salty. I don't know whether this was by accident or deliberate. In general foods in Myanmar are pretty salty. Many local Asian dishes are much saltier than what we usually have in the US because it's meant to be eaten with steamed rice. So, probably this saltiness is the way it's supposed to be??

The second dish is a chopped veggie salad tossed with ground peanut sauce. This was one of my favorite dishes.

This is all time my favorite veggie, water spinach (which the instructor called 'water cress'). The stem part is hollow shaped. It has some distinctive crunchiness if cooked right. This is supposed to be a cheap green vegetable (almost like weeds) to those in some part of Asia. But this is somewhat exotic to me. Simply prepared with oil and garlic. Very good!

This is the most unique and tasty dish that we made. It is fish cake curry. The flesh from the weirdly cut fish is made into cakes with the curry paste we made earlier. Normally I would need some sort of binder to make fish cakes but the fish flesh was naturally sticky. So, I didn't need to add anything else. The sauce is made with the curry paste and tomato.

This is duck egg curry. The duck eggs look about the same size as chicken eggs but the yolk has more orange-ish bright color. It was a bit challenging not to break the egg yolk when I was stirring the skillet..

The instructor and her assistants/stuff are very nice. Very homey feeling. I had a very pleasant time here.


As soon as I finished the class, I headed to the airport to fly to Bangkok, Thailand. I'm planning to take another cooking class in Bangkok.


When I left Yangon in the afternoon, it was pretty warm. But when I arrived at Bangkok in the early evening, it was like a sauna.... It was still quite warm and very humid.... I managed to get to a restaurant that I checked out before I arrived at Bangkok. It wasn't very crowded and the server wasn't friendly at all. But the foods were very good.

Especially the first dish is something to remember for a long time! It is pomelo salad with pork, topped with mint leaves. Sweet, tangy and spicy, amazingly balanced flavor. While fried shallots on the top give it depth, the pomelo makes the entire dish light and very refreshing. I'm going to make this myself once I get home. I don't know if I can recreate the same flavor, though..

When the server asked "spicy?" I said yes, hoping he'd bring the authentic green curry. He did not disappoint me! It was very spicy but without losing the balance (some spicy foods are almost bitter...). Very strong basil taste. I don't know if the curry paste has logs of basil or the local basil is stronger than American grown Thai basil. Anyway, it was very good

I asked for Tom Yam Koon (clear shrimp soup). But it seems it's a bit creamy and I did taste coconut. But it's not as creamy as Tom Kha (coconut soup). I'm not sure if this is supposed to be Tom Yam or Tom Kha... Nonetheless, this is so good! It was pretty spicy to begin with. But as it sat, it kept getting spicier. All the heat extracted more capsicum... I couldn't finish the soup because it became a bit too spicy. Next time, I'll finish it as soon as possible!

Stir fried minced chicken with basil. It was pretty spicy but sweet also. Again, a very strong basil taste.

 

 

Thailand is very close to Myanmar and they share lots of same ingredients. However, the way they season foods is so different. Everything is stronger in Thailand. Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to see the difference at the cooking class.

Return to Yangon

I had some time to kill at the Bagan airport waiting for the flight back to Yangon. So I went to a nearby café that was recommended by the tour guide who dropped me off. There were no English signs even though it was a café by the airport (it's outside the gate, but within walking distance), and nobody spoke English either. All I asked for was coffee and Laphet Thoke. All the people I saw at the café were locals. Although I was a bit concerned about the hygiene, I was also excited by the opportunity. The Laphet Thoke I got was served in the salad style. The tea leaf in the salad was a bit slimy. I was a bit scared but this was supposed to be fermented tea leaf.... So, I went for it and it was pretty good. I've seen fresh chili on the side, but I've never seen tiny raw unpeeled garlic. What was I supposed to do with it?? It looked cute, though... 

 

 

 

When I arrived at Yangon, I had additional sightseeing without a tour guide. For dinner, I went to a Shan food restaurant. Shan food is from Shan state, which is northeast of Yangon. Another famous sightseeing spot in Myanmar, Inle Lake, is in Shan State. It seems Shan state has their own style of food. I should probably go there next time. Anyway, I found a Shan Food restaurant in Yangon so decided to give it a shot.

 

The restaurant looked pretty upscale compared to typical restaurants for locals. And yes, there were only non-locals in the restaurant. The price wasn't horrible for me, but I'm sure it's way too expensive for locals. This is the only restaurant I went to in Myanmar that included service charge in the final check. The dishes all tasted pretty good and I hope they were really authentic, not adjusted for tourists.

 

Sautéed green - I don't remember the name but the leaves were fuzzy.

Although mohinga is known as the most popular noodle dish in Myanmar, Shan state has quite a few noodle dishes in their own style. I asked the waitress which one is the most traditional and she chose this one. Compare to mohinga, the broth is much lighter. It looked a bit spicy but it wasn't at all. Anyway, most Myanmar foods are not very spicy. I think this is a chicken based broth. Pretty good.

I guess this is a side pickled green for the Shan noodle.

Pork cooked with banana blossoms

Myanmar version of Som Tom (Green papaya salad)

Chopped raw mushroom and other aromatics - I didn't expect it to be raw. It was very unique.

Complimentary sweet potato cake - it was very sweet. I wish it was a bit more moist...

Tomorrow, I'm going to take cooking class in Yangon and fly back to Bangkok afterward. I'm really looking forward to the cooking class!

Bagan - Day 2

Bagan has two districts, old and new. When old Bagan was designated as an archaeological site, most of the residents were moved to another area, which became new Bagan. My local guide is from the only village that remained in the old Bagan area. The second day of the tour started with a visit to his village. First, the market was filled with large amounts of fresh veggies and fruits. The people were rather shy, though.  

 

This is very typical scene in Myanmar. Young monks walk around the village in the morning and the residents donate food. Some donate rice and others donate curries. The monks are bringing the food back to the temple and share it with others. People in Myanmar are very religious and pay a great amount of respect even if the monks are very young.

One of the foods that I wanted to try in Myanmar was mohinga, a very popular fish based noodle soup. I heard I could get this anywhere in Myanmar. So I asked the guide to recommend a good place to have mohinga for dinner. He said mohinga is for breakfast. I didn't know..,, But he suggested a café where I could have mohinga anytime. It was very local looking café with no English signs. The person at the counter knew only a few words in English. First, he said "No food." It seems he thought I had come in to have dinner. As soon as I said "Mohinga," he said "OK" and brought this. So, here is my first mohinga in Myanmar. It's a semi-thick broth with rice noodle and fried shallots & garlic as toppings. It's a bit spicy, but not strongly seasoned like Thai or Indian food. It has a rather delicate flavor, the broth is probably made with catfish. It was very good, but the portion was rather small because this was supposed to be a snack. I still can't believe how much I paid for this. It was about $0.20....

So, after the mohinga, I went back to the restaurant that I went to the previous night and ordered 3 salads.

Seaweed salad

Citron Salad, very tangy

Pennywort salad. I really don't know what pennywort is... Some leafy greens and it was similar to the tamarind leaf salad that I had last night, only with bigger leaves

 

These were all good. But I still like the tamarind leaf salad the best. I'm flying back to Yangon tomorrow morning. I'm glad it's not super early flight..